Intelligent Gardener

Growing Nutrient-dense Food

Baker & TaylorPresents advice on how to improve growing soil, discussing some of the current misconceptions about soil and providing the best methods for adding enhancements that will produce nutrient-dense foods.

Perseus Publishing

Vegetables, fruits, and grains are a major source of vital nutrients, but centuries of intensive agriculture have depleted our soils to historic lows. As a result, the broccoli you consume today may have less than half of the vitamins and minerals that the equivalent serving would have contained a hundred years ago. This is a matter for serious concern, since poor nutrition has been linked to myriad health problems including cancer, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes. For optimum health we must increase the nutrient density of our foods to the levels enjoyed by previous generations.

To grow produce of the highest nutritional quality the essential minerals lacking in our soil must be replaced, but this re-mineralization calls for far more attention to detail than the simple addition of composted manure or NPK fertilizers. The Intelligent Gardener demystifies the process while simultaneously debunking much of the false and misleading information perpetuated by both the conventional and organic agricultural movements. In doing so, it conclusively establishes the link between healthy soil, healthy food, and healthy people.

This practical step-by-step guide and the accompanying customizable web-based spreadsheets go beyond organic and are essential tools for any serious gardener who cares about the quality of the produce they grow.

Steve Solomon is the author of several landmark gardening books including Gardening When it Counts and Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. The founder of the Territorial Seed Company, he has been growing most of his family's food for over thirty-five years.

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Well worth reading - valuable information on how to make nutirent dense compost, the importance of clay in your compost and soil, and hot compost is not necessarily as nutrient dense as ones made at lower temperatures. Masses of other useful. info.. The information is spread around the book, so its worth noting facts and figures for yourself as you go.. I was told he has a more succinct version of this somewhere - maybe on his online library.. www.soilandhealth.org some other info can be downloaded from www.soilanalyst.org

here's one that was recommended to me recently by Steve Solomon.
http://tasfoodbooks.com/growingvegetablesouthofaustralia.html

Steve has written a very interesting, very personal exploration of soils and their impact on human health. He supplements this with some interesting references that he makes accessible via his web site. For better or worse, however, he is not a soil scientist. Some of his writing could be made clearer, and his reasoning made more solid. I think he goes overboard in attacking certain individuals. Still he has made an important contribution with this work. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in food gardening.

Summary

This book uses a combination of the author's own science (based on his high school chemistry understandings), a little learned science and other peoples' opinions, and experience making compost and growing plants. The most annoying thing about the book is the use of recommendations in pounds and feet. Although the author now lives in Tasmania, this book feels designed entirely for the US market.